Comic-Con wins $4M in legal fees in trademark battle with Salt Lake City

In yet another victory for Comic-Con in its long-running battle over the rights to its name, a San Diego judge has ordered organizers of Salt Lake City’s comic convention to pay nearly $4 million in attorney fees and costs.

The ruling Thursday by U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia also granted a permanent injunction barring the Salt Lake convention from using various versions of San Diego Comic-Con’s trademarked names, a decision that eventually could have a more wide-ranging impact on other conventions that continue to incorporate variations of the Comic-Con name.

Late last year, a San Diego jury had found that the trademarked brand belongs to Comic-Con International and that Salt Lake Comic Con and its founders had infringed on the right to that name. The jury, though, awarded only $20,000 in damages, concluding that the trademark infringement was not “willful.”